FANCIERS' JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 



119 



rearing ; one of them turned out to be a cock, the other a 

 hen — the latter, which I am now going to give you an ac- 

 count of. She kept them in a cage, amongst other lots of 

 birds, in the school-room, where they were frequently allowed 

 to fly about. In April, 1871, the cock disappeared during her 

 absence from home. After that my sister did not care about 

 keeping the hen, so she let it out purposely into the garden ; 

 but so accustomed had it got to the room and the society of 

 the other birds, that it had no intention of finally taking its 

 departure, as it continually used to come into the room 

 whenever the window was opened. Last summer this spar- 

 row paired to a wild cock, and built a nest in the ivy about 

 twenty yards from the house, within reach of the ground, 

 with material taken out of the room. During the time it 

 was sitting, it would fly off its nest on being called, and take 

 a caterpillar from her hand. At length it hatched its young, 

 when it came backwards and forwards to the room for food, 

 but my sister, wishing to give it some caterpillars, went to 

 look for them amongst the flowers, and the sparrow used to 

 follow her, and when she found one it would fly to her to 

 take it out of her hand, and continued to do so wherever she 

 was. After the young had got a little older, my sister used 

 to take food to the nest, and when she held some close to it, 

 the sparrow would take it out of her hand when sitting on 

 the nest. The young sparrows soon left the nest and sat 

 about the trees, my sister feeding the mother with her young 

 sitting close to her ; but the young soon went away and left 

 the old sparrow, which still remains in our garden, and 

 comes to be fed every day, and stays in the room all night 

 very often, which it is doing to-night. The cock which 

 disappeared was tamer than the hen, and it used to nestle 

 about in 3' sister's hair." 



Ifttftttjs intwisttofl mx& ^muffing. 



8@" A professor in Montreal recently introduced two 

 tame skunks, to illustrate a lecture on the diffusion of odors. 



8®"J. F. Ferris, Stamford, Conn., has sold his entire 

 stock of White Leghorns to C. H. Crosby, Danbur}', Conn , 

 for Hollo Nichols, Esq., of the same place. 



JS®" There was a room with eight corners. In each 

 corner sat a cat ; before each cat sat seven other cats ; and 

 on each, cat's tail sat a cat. How many cats in all ? An- 

 swei — Eight cats. 



J8QT" Frog hunting for the Boston market is said to be a 

 profitable employment in Newburyport. The frogs are 

 kept in tubs and fattened with meal, and afterwards shipped 

 to order. 



fi@" Statistics show that those who love pets rarely be- 

 come criminals. Out of two thousand convicts, of whom 

 inquiry was made, only twelve admitted that they left pets 

 at home. This offers a valuable suggestion to parents. 

 Children should be encouraged in a spirit of tenderness and 

 a love of the beautiful. 



5@" Woman's Logic. — Ladies' logic is not always of the 

 clearest. A married lady with a family, who lived in a 

 villa, was asked why she was at the expense of keeping a 

 cow, seeing that it would be surely cheaper to buy milk for 

 the household. " Well," said she, in reply, " we keep the 

 cow because we have a field quite at hand, which answers 

 very nicely." " But," was the rejoinder, " why do you rent 

 the field?" The answer was: "Because, you know, we 

 have got the cow." 



flgg= Rare Animals. — The Paris Jardin d'Acclimation 

 has just received a large consignment of rare animals from 

 the Coromandel coast, Polynesia, and South America. 

 Among them are four young Pategonian Hares, which 

 grow to the size of s. fawn ; some curious Ducks, from the 

 Dafilia Spinicandi (never before brought to Europe) to the 

 Melopiona paposaca of Micronesia ; a Swan, which looks 

 like a floating log, thence called Dendrocyenal arcuatu ; 

 some Tufted Partridges; a Cryptonyx Cristalus, whose eyes 

 are half covered with a red eyelid ; Quails from Coroman- 

 del ; the Cathurnix Coromandelica, &c. — American Sports- 

 man. 



J3@" We overheard a dialogue the other day between a 

 couple of elderly ladies, both parties seeming to take a lively 

 interest in the poultry business, discussing the merits of 

 their favorite breeds. The first lady said she once had a 

 stock of hens that used to lay two eggs per day the year 

 round — she had forgot "the name on 'um." The second 

 lady replied that when she was first married her mother 

 gave her a hen that done that the first year, and she and her 

 man used to brag on her, and it made the old hen mighty 

 proud. So, onetime the old hen thought she would see how 

 well she could do ; so on Monday she only laid one egg, and 

 the next day two, and doubled every day until Saturday, 

 when she laid a goose egg, and busted. The other lady 

 heaved a sigh and said, " I must go." — Exchange. 



BS" Ulcerated Feet or Birds. — In your Journal of 

 November 3d (page 362) I observe a question about a Bull- 

 finch's feet being swollen, and Mr. Blakston says it arises 

 from the cage, &c, not being kept clean. Now, this cannot 

 be, as I knew. several kept in a room, afflicted with bad 

 feet. I have observed that Bullfinches seem more subject to 

 this complaint than other birds, but I have known Canaries 

 affected with it. It comes on with a sort of swelling, and 

 goes on, if not stopped, till the foot suppurates, and off drop 

 the. claws, and sometimes the foot. I found out a cure for 

 it in one-fourth of the solution of chloride of soda, and three 

 parts of boiled rain-water with just the chill off, put into a 

 little galleypot, and the bird's feet put in twice or thrice a 

 day. The same water will do for a day or so, but it must 

 be kept corked up, as this solution is a solution of soda im- 

 pregnated with chlorine gas, and not as many of the chem- 

 ists will tell you, common salt. I have known this cure 

 birds after one or two of the claws have dropped off, and it 

 maj' be of use to many of your readers. — A. Y., in Journal 

 of Horticulture. 



8@~ A bee raiser in New England is said to have pat- 

 ented an invention for the protection of bees from the attacks 

 of the honey-moth, which enters the hives at night and 

 rifles the stores. The idea arose out of his familiarity with 

 the daily routine, not of bees only, but of hens. Hens, he 

 observed, retire to rest early; bees seek repose earlier still ; 

 no sooner are they sunk in slumber than the moth steals 

 into their abode and devours the produce of their toil. He 

 has now built a stand of hives with a hen house above it. 

 The bees first betake themselves to their dwelling and set- 

 tle themselves for the night. The hens then come home to 

 roost on their perch, and, as they take their place upon it, 

 their weight sets some simple mechanism to work, which at 

 once shuts down the doors of all the hives. When the day 

 dawns, hewever, the hens leave their roost, and the removal 

 of their weight from the perch raises the hive doors and 

 gives egress to the bees in time for their morning's work. 



